Cognos, has unveiled Cognos 8 BI Analysis for Microsoft Excel, that enables Microsoft Excel users to directly access centrally controlled and secured Cognos 8 BI performance information. Cognos says the self-service nature of the new capability will make it easy for business analysts, financial analysts or line of business managers to interactively explore and analyse multidimensional information within Microsoft Excel, without draining valuable IT resources.
Using formula-based data access, business users will be able to find answers, solve business problems and report key results in the format most convenient to them, while using the Cognos 8 BI infrastructure for data consistency, freshness and security. For richer analysis and formatting, or for broader enterprise distribution of reports, they can re-use the results of their exploration within other worksheets or Cognos 8 BI's other reporting and analysis capabilities.
"The ability to conduct drag and drop exploration and analysis of controlled BI data within Excel will really benefit the business analyst who wants to solve analytical problems in a familiar spreadsheet environment," said Vivian Adashek, financial systems project specialist, Manpower. "These analysts are gaining direct access to the underlying data sources within Excel so they can flexibly analyse trusted secure information from Cognos 8 BI together with other data sources without requiring IT to do this for them."
"In IDC's Services and Software Leading Indicators survey, C-suite executives expressed their desire for improved integrated access to relevant information as well as real-time monitoring of business performance," said Kathleen Wilhide, Research Director, Financial Performance & Strategy Management, IDC. "Business analysts are faced with multiple daily requests for on-the-fly analysis. Through the use of Excel connected to the trusted Cognos performance management environment, analysts are empowered to produce self-service reports and analysis with familiar Excel, while maintaining the integrity of information through a live connection to the enterprise system of record."
Leah MacMillan, vice president of product marketing, Cognos. "This solution will immediately extend the value of a customer's Cognos 8 BI deployment, and unlike other tools available, it is not limited to exploration of proprietary data sources and does not require IT expertise to enjoy its benefits."
